Thunderstorms
by CaptainInappropriate
Summary: All she's felt is failure, pain, loneliness and betrayal but could never move to fix it. Nobody ever came to help. Now after the thunder and lighting, she faces her storm. Dark Oneshot Challenge.
1. Thunderstorms

**I can't explain it. Just a response to the dark one shot challenge. Casey being OOC is noted. It's not my best or my favorite, I just sat down to write. **

**Summary: **She's told a handful of people that all she feels is failure, pain, loneliness and betrayal but they never moved to fix it. Nobody ever came to help.

_Answer to DarkFairy72's Dark Oneshot Challenge._

**Disclaimer: I do not own Life With Derek.**

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Prompt: Thunderstorm

_The Happy, Bubbly Girl Died_

Thunderstorms were really a regular occurrence in London. Sure, there were spring showers, and in the summer it wasn't uncommon to get rain with a little bit of rumbling from the dark skies. But it wasn't often that there was a storm that knocked out the power, turned the world as dark as night, and threw lightening around enough to drive people inside.

Casey McDonald welcomed the angry, violent storm today. It voiced all of the hurt that she couldn't find words for. It blocked out the knowledge of the rest of the family just one floor away with heavy, oversized raindrops smacking her window. It distracted her from trying to figure out a way to fix it. Fix everything.

She lay on her bed, slightly entertained that at three in the afternoon in summer that it was dark enough outside to make it seem like it was the middle of the night. The electricity had gone out about five minutes into the lightening show, and her small bedside lamp flickered off, leaving her in the dark.

Casey ran a hand across her forehead and sighed. She was disgusted with herself for being so pathetic. She was laying across her bed in the wrong direction, her knees bent slightly as she faced the door expecting no one to open it.

She was too mean to talk to.

Senior year of high school. Amazing, right? The best time ever? A new path opening up in front of your eyes, taking the plunge into real life, realizing that the world is at your fingertips.

Casey thought it was just a bunch of lies that the three people in history that actually had a good time in high school made up to promote reunions.

Sure, grade eleven had been fun. Casey had maintained her grades without inflating the grade-grubbing reputation that she had earned in grade ten. She had solidified her relationship with Emily and dipped her fingers into the popular pool with Max and cheerleading. Home life had been okay during her junior year, a silent agreement between her and Derek left them only truly fighting occasionally. It was more common to see the two of them bickering over trifling issues, pranking or conspiring than actually screaming at each other.

But, lo and behold, the summer before senior year brought every positive aspect to Casey McDonald's life to a halt. Schlepper, Tinker and Kendra had all moved to different parts of Canada before the year started, and while they weren't her best friends, these were all people that Casey had become close enough to for her to miss them a lot.

Not that it mattered, though, because even Emily left her. Only two weeks after the school year started, Emily's dad got transferred and she was now living in the states. She and Casey had made an effort to talk every day for exactly eight days before the conversation dwindled. The last time Casey talked to her best friend, she had been grumpy, biting, and realized after she hung up that she had dished a whole lot of drama onto Emily that she didn't deserve. Emily made no motion to call back, and Casey refused to take the initiative herself.

So now, school was awful. Casey considered becoming closer to Amy, Max or Noel, but she found that she lacked the willpower to reestablish the friendship that she knew couldn't be replaced. Slowly, and quietly, she let the people at school slip away and she found herself eating, studying, and walking alone in SJST High.

Home wasn't the solace that she desperately needed it to be. Casey had gotten in a fight with her mom around the middle of October over something that she couldn't actually pinpoint. Casey wasn't positive, but she figured that her bad mood and long days at school left her irritable and looking for a fight. Her mother had just been the one to have a knock-down, drag out fight with. The fragile and questionable relationship Casey had developed with George slid downhill fast after that. The two of them barely knew how to exchange forced conversations with Casey at the dinner table anymore.

She couldn't remember the last time she had spoken to her own dad, but she was certain that she had treated him just the same as she had treated everyone else. That's probably a big part of why he hadn't called. He probably just didn't know what to say anymore.

Casey was sure that the same went for Lizzie. Although Casey wasn't sure how or when her baby sister took a step back, she just knew that their close bond had been broken. They didn't talk about boys, they didn't conspire against the Venturi's, and they certainly didn't take trips to the mall together anymore. It broke Casey's heart to know that every time she opened her mouth it was to argue or blame someone for something, but couldn't muster up the energy to apologize to anyone.

She didn't know how to fix it. She didn't know what to apologize for. Casey had no idea how to feel better.

Thunder clapped outside of Casey's upstairs room and she blinked, surprised as a tear she didn't know had pooled in her eye fell down her face. She was sick of crying. She cried because she was lonely. She cried because she fought with her mom, because she lost all contact with all her friends, because no one was there for her.

Two days before she had fractured the connection between her and her mother, Casey mentioned that she was sad, tired, and painful. She made a quiet remark about not knowing what to do, and that maybe she needed help. Her mother took it in stride, and if the comment was even processed, Nora had said nothing back. No action had been made.

A flash of lightening lit her room for a split second, and Casey sighed. The storm was close now, and that meant that it would be passing soon. Maybe when the lights came back on the family would look around realize that Casey had slipped off. They'd take time out of the hide-and-seek game they were playing to keep Marty from being afraid of the weather to come and check on her.

Maybe they'd come up stairs and tell her to come down to eat. She'd refuse, and they'd persist. Maybe then she could talk to her mother alone, and she could recommend something, _anything_ to make it better. Then they'd start playing a game to focus on making _Casey_ feel better, make her feel like her life hadn't dissipated into nothing but emotions and tears.

Casey rolled onto her back and popped her right hand's knuckles to relieve the pressure of laying on it for over an hour.

No one would come up. They'd learned their lesson. They'd open the door, ask if she was okay and wanted to come watch a movie, or play a game, and she'd snap. She'd bark that she was fine and that if she wanted to come down she'd have already been there.

She'd throw some snark at Derek that would be below the belt, and while if taken out of context would only be a comment, it would cut, blame and burn. Then she'd find something she didn't like, a new pillow, a new recipe, a different way that someone had decided to conduct normal life. She'd freak out, say things like, 'Who does this, _seriously_?' and 'You've _got_ to be kidding me.' Casey would hurt everyone, alienate the children, snarl at her mother, and move back up to her bedroom or into the back yard, and they'd leave her alone again.

Last Tuesday, someone had decided that the washcloths should be one drawer up, and the cooking items that weren't often used should be on the bottom. "This is _ridiculous_." She'd said quietly, and while it wasn't a direct comment, Lizzie, who figured it'd be easier to put the regularly used items higher, felt the heat of her sister's impatience.

Lizzie hadn't said anything, just lowered her head and continued to eat her cereal.

In short, Casey knew that no one would be knocking on her door.

Here she was, almost eighteen and staring graduation in the eye, with nothing to aspire to anymore. It was obvious to Casey that either no one cared, or no one noticed. Bubbly happy Casey had been gone. No one understood how exhausting it was to put on that mask for so long. To be the one that saw a positive note in every day, no matter how forced, now matter how silly. Casey was tired of being the one to mediate, to clean up after her family, to inspire everyone to keep up whatever they were losing the will to do.

No body made a comment when the happy, bubbly girl died.

No body went looking for the old Casey that would make lists and chore wheels.

No body tired, because whenever they had before, they were attacked.

The rain slowly became less violent, and the dark gray lightened slightly. Casey rolled back over to her side and let her hair fall over her eyes to pretend that it was still dark. She tried desperately to stop her ears from straining to hear any footsteps coming up the stairs.

Nobody would come. She told them not to.

...

**It's off, I know this, and it's choppy, scattered, and pathetic. There's no climax or moral or solution, but hey. That's exactly how depression goes, right?**


	2. Umbrella

Once again, there's not really an explanation

**Once again, there's not really an explanation. Picks up directly after Thunderstorms, and maybe this is breaking the rules of the one-shot thing but hey, I had to do it. Blame the weird metaphor on Something Corporate, and I couldn't resist putting just a itty bitty bit of Dasey blush on this thing to brighten it up. **

**Summary: **The aftermath of a the thunderstorm reveals the help that she's longed for, and searched for.

_Answer to DarkFairy72's Dark Oneshot Challenge. This is one of the few selected from this challenge that is allowed to not be as dark. _

**Disclaimer: I do not own Life With Derek.**

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**Prompt: Umbrella**

_Facing the Storm_

Casey lay atop her bed, broken and silent. Thoughts of her deepening depression sat on her as if someone was actually crushing her sternum and trying to suffocate her. Casey was disgusted to find that her room was no longer the sanctuary it had been only minutes ago. The clouds looming over London had thinned considerably, and though the electricity was out, her room was no longer as dark as night.

As of the past three hours, her patchwork quilt was the only helpful ear she could find. "I just want help," she whispered to the section beneath her, wondering if the cotton threads would be stained with her running mascara.

'It's time for you to shut up,' her mind said loudly back to her, and she was shocked. Casey almost audibly questioned herself, but kept her lips sealed.

Perhaps if no one was willing to notice that she was miserable, she was going to have to fix herself... but if she was honest with herself, she didn't know how. And that wasn't the only problem; she had no idea where to start.

Casey rolled on to her back and let her eyes land on the window. All lightening of the previous rainstorm had ceased completely, with only an occasional rumble of thunder in the distance to signal that the next town to the east was now getting pounded by the rain. All that was left of the storm that seemed to soothe Casey's misery was the dull cloud coverage and a steady, even rain to cool the pavement outside.

Casey's big blue eyes watched as drops hit the clear glass and ran down smoothly, distorting the shapes of the elm trees outside that stood out so darkly against the light clouds. Watching the rain, she was finally distracted from listening for anyone coming up the stairs to save her when her door almost silently inched open.

Slowly, and a bit unwillingly, Casey slid her eyes from the window above her to face her visitor, trying to cook up an excuse for why she needed to be alone. Just a few yards away, Derek stood leaning slightly into her room with his hands on the door frame. The unlit hallway behind him left him looking as if Casey was staring at a cut out of her step-brother, pasted onto a black backing.

Instead of voicing her question, Casey blinked at Derek, waiting for him to speak up. His face was emotionless, but at the same time offered more comfort that Casey had seen from anyone lately.

Shaking his head slightly to get his overgrown bangs out of his eyes, Derek straightened and dropped his arms from the doorframe, revealing an umbrella in his left hand. "Come on," he said, almost a whisper, with one hand moving only inches towards the hallway as in invitation.

Casey was speechless, and she knew if she opened her mouth, she'd probably start crying. So for a few more seconds, she lay staring at Derek until one more cock of his head toward the hallway finally convinced her to get up and follow him.

The two of them very slowly walked down the hallway and headed towards the stairs. With all the lights out, the hallway was much darker with no windows to shed some light, but Casey could very clearly see that Derek was still in front of her.

Of all the people in the world, she least expected help to come from him. She had been markedly more horrible to him than she had been to everyone else. Yet here he was, offering to take her out on a walk.

Nora and Goerge looked up from the couch as the two of them came down the stairs, both with a slight hint of hope and comfort in their eyes. Between the parents of the house, a very tired Marti was slurring her way through a narration using a stuffed caterpillar and a spatula from the kitchen for illustrations. Casey tried her hardest to realize how adorable that was, but still found her face refusing to show any emotion, except for maybe a slight hint of confusion as she followed Derek out of the house.

As soon as she made it down the stairs onto the concrete of the sidewalk, Derek opened the umbrella and stepped close enough to her to hold the red and white patterned shelter over the both of them. Derek didn't say a word, only took a slight step ahead to silently lead Casey to the left at the end of the driveway. They were headed away from the house that Emily used to live in, away from the corner across from the park that the three of them used to wait for the bus. Their backs were towards the school, towards Smelly Nelly's where all of the friends that Casey missed always congregated.

If you wanted to take it to extremes, behind her was her old town and her old school, where she had been so sure of who she was, so sure of her family. And if they took the right ahead of them, her back was also to her father, so far away and disconnected from not only her's, but Lizzie's life too.

Derek handed off the umbrella and wrapped his arm around Casey's shoulder before taking that right just a head of them. Casey realized with a start that in order to get home, she would have to turn to face all these things again. There was only one way to go around the block, and eventually, she would be heading straight towards what she was currently running from.

Minutes later, at the end of another block, Derek nudged her very slightly to take another right, and Casey stopped walking, thinking of all the things ready to be placed right in front of her. "Case?" Derek questioned, quietly, just barely audible over the sound of the small raindrops on the umbrella.

Casey turned to Derek, her eyes big and crystal blue against the dull gray sky. "I don't-"

"Come on," he said for the second time, a bit louder than before, and gently turned Casey around to continue on down the sidewalk. Derek looked over at Casey as the started walking slowly once again. She kept her eyes closed for the first few steps before opening them and staring ahead. Derek grinned to himself when she visibly realized that all the monsters in front of her were invisible. Nothing was waiting to assault her, not directly at least. All that stood in front of her was a stretch of concrete, moistened by the rain.

Casey slowly looked up to Derek and bit her bottom lip, her eyes widening when he smiled at her.

"Thanks, Derek," she whispered, leaning her head on his shoulder. Though the thunder and lightening had passed and left London behind, Casey was finally facing her own storm.


End file.
